Swan Upping, Loan Move, And Festive Frolics
Jan 4th, 2013 by 'holic
There is no escaping the size of the task that Arsenal face in Swansea this weekend. I was at the Grove a month ago when the Welsh side outplayed us and deservedly took three points back across the Severn Bridge. Fortunately the lacklustre Arsenal that played that day had a run-out at Southampton in the week so I am anticipating a far better performance from our Jekyll and Hyde side on Sunday.
“I hope they face a different Arsenal this time”
You’re not alone there, Arsene. We have lost our last two matches against Swansea, and only just pipped them 1-0 at the Grove last season. They try and play the way we used to on a regular basis, so if we do recover our A game this could be a magnificent tie to watch.
With a week to recover before the Manchester City home game I would expect to see our strongest side take the field on Sunday lunchtime. That selection is not clear cut, however. Arsene has decisions to make in his back four. Carl Jenkinson and Per Mertesacker must surely come into the reckoning. He also has to decide whether to retain Theo Walcott in the central striking role or recall Olivier Giroud.
It being a cup tie we will also need potential game changers on the bench. Tomas Rosicky is a given, but I hope Andrey Arshavin too is in the squad. With the West Ham Premiership fixture to be rearranged in January a draw is not a desirable outcome in any way, shape, or form. Let’s look to play fast, get the ball moving forwards, and take calculated risks to create the chances that were so lacking in the week.
For no reason other than blind faith I am looking at us to win this one at the first attempt. As on Tuesday, the bookies favour a 1-1 draw, but I will place the ‘holic pound on a 2-1 away win. That will turn the price of a pint into about a gallon, or thereabouts. How about Mikel Arteta, penalty taker, to score at any time? Gunners Gaming offer an interesting 21/5 against that, so will be my backup punt. Click on the banner above to take advantage of their generosity. Thanks.
Bye For Now, Marouane
The news that Marouane Chamakh has gone on loan to West Ham United for the remainder of the season is probably a good bit of business for all concerned. He was clearly never going to be given the run of games he needs to recover his mojo at Arsenal. After a bright half a season as cover for the injured van Stapleton when he arrived things have gone a bit pear-shaped for the Moroccan. I can’t help but think that the way Sam Allardyce likes his team to play could bring the best out of Chamakh. I hope so, for his sake.
Junior Gunners Have A Blast
Away from the general air of doom around the world of social media it was a pleasure to read the comments of one of ours, Gooner Ref, in the last set of drinks.
Yesterday (3rd Jan for those having trouble remembering) son, who is a Junior Gunner, went to the annual party at The Ems, dropped him off at 10am and picked him up at 4pm, He spent the day being entertained, watching the training session and finally getting photo’s and autographs with the team – total cost of a priceless day for him? absolutely nothing, thats right £0.00.
The images of the event can be found on the official club website. Arsenal are quite rightly being questioned about things that are perceived to be wrong at the moment. It is great to be reminded that they also get some stuff right. Giving the future support a day they will never forget is not something the club and the players had to do. It was something they wanted to do.
Classenal, that’s us.
520 Responses to “Swan Upping, Loan Move, And Festive Frolics”
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First……
First.
Secondi
Oh well.
Well Bugger I with a gert big fish fork.
I will read the post now.
You snooze, you lose.
Basic stuff really boys…….
league position
Top half. Meh!
Thanks to Mary/Clive, Dan C, Steve T and Garsguns for your comments in the previous drinks.
My culinary assessment of the squad reached its sell-by date very quickly. Must have been in the everything must go tonight section of the chiller cabinet. Such is life.
I’m with Holic re: the inclusion of our finest chipolata in the squad. Impact sausages do not come any better.
Good wok on previous drinks TS.
Wok = work
Or does it.
Nice one Holic.
You are more sanguine than me about which side (of the split personality) will turn up – I foresee a tense and angina-inducing 90 minutes.
Still, that will mean that the “other side” will turn up next weekend, though right?
9 sleeps.
Heh H2H. I fried my best.
Holic – thanks for that link, what a brilliant day out for the next , next generation of Gooners.
Ok.
Very good to see such a classy event for the junior Gunners. I am negotiating with a five year- old grandson who has a father from the other side and friends at school who support Chelsea. I hadn’t realised there was a choice at that age but things start earlier nowadays.
Perhaps enrolment in the Junior Gunners would turn his head. Soon. I expect agents around to see me suggesting they can arrange for him to become a Gooner if I pay the requisite commissions. Any ideas on how to convince him?
Difficult game to call especially with our erratic form, Jeckell and Hyde indeed ‘holic. I’d personally like to see a great deal of rotation. Get the BFG back in, give Sagna a rest, TR7 a decent run out and maybe even a bit of a formation shuffle. (the last won’t happen though). If we don’t give 100% then I’m afraid this will be an extreamly short cup run.
Sweeper,
From the previous thread – thanks for the heads up on that piece. It was well worth the read.
SSS@ 14-is there a clock ticking at Swansea or has it seized up through a combination of rust and neglect?
Who let the sheep shagger in?
Aha!
A trolling Swan, brilliant fun.
Your penultimate line Sammy sums it all up very well. You think of a Timex but here at The Classenal it would be a Rolex.
Please remind me what the small club from Cardiff has won lately apart from promotion from the lower leagues and a sponsored, phlegm retardant pitch. What’s that? Helllooooooooooooo?
BTW, the fact that you’re a swinger isn’t necessarily something to shout about although there are certain members of this bar that might take an unhealthy interest in your extra curricular activities.
Nice stuff ‘holic!
3-1, Top 3 and one trophy!
@Melancholy Mary from previous drinks,
Interesting post that one on Arsenal News Review. Auld Purplenose’s Champions League failures are something that resonate with me greatly.
It has always fascinated me just how most Liverpool fans, arguably some of the most pragmatic and erudite of all in the top-flight, see Arsene. Always very respected by them for what he’s done in the game, and still keeps on being respected.
If the Dutch Douché Bag’s fiscal layout will be as he states, what a result! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer club!
Awww…. he’s gone. Maybe he’ll be baaaaaack?
Heh
Heh, you’re all ranting at an empty bar-stool
Only Steve T can count, heh!
It would be pretty vacant even if he was still here Zico.
That was no Swan, TS. It was a Canada goose, and you now how full of shit they are…
@25
H2H: Excellent post regarding the Theo situation in the previous bar. I am sailing in the same boat as you.
Really H?
That’s what he has stooped to?
What a twat.
Haha – shadow boxing redefined
Mary The Sweeper – I’m with Dan C @ #21.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOR38552MJA
F*ck me, you’re sh*ttin’ me ‘Holic?
Kanadian interlopers posing as Swans? Scary stuff…
Ollie,
I didn’t even get a chance to ignore him. Shame.
I have never looked at another clubs blogs. Are they that shitty that other team supporters always end up on ours?
Lets hope an energetic team shows up Sunday. ( is that Jekyll or Hyde?)
Ref Gooner: enjoyed hearing about the day out for the Junior Gooners. I have a couple who would have loved it.
BTW, how poetic if Spamakh banged in a few goals against the LWCs, Manure and Chel$ea.
He would return to us a hero…. well you know what I mean
Cheers Impec1, I’m glad you saw it, it was pretty close to the cut off on the previous bar so I was planning on waiting ’til someone brought it up again and then repost it.
Roberto?
Seriously?
And we are the ones without jobs/ lives?
H2H,
There’s something going on with Theo?
Heh, it was more to the point that there’s nothing going on with him.
Great preview mate. I lumping it on 1-2, ‘holic pound has to deliver again soon. Sunday’s the day I reckon.
Maintaining the culinary theme, nice kitchen Wojciech
https://twitter.com/LittleMissSandy/status/287317164678053889/photo/1
TS @41,
Looks a tad singed that hen!
My, what big hands he has Wolfie…
Who you callin’ hen, doll?
TS: end of season lasagna being prepared just in case?
Good thinking Ollie. Almost certainly.
Classenal ! I really like that
Evening holics. Holic, I can’t imagine our lads not going for it. Jenks, Per, TR and AA, gosh, that would be sumptin special 
As for Chamakh making good, I sure hope so. Will never forget the look of pure joy on his face when he scored those two goals for us. We’ll follow his progress and cheer him on 
TS, Happy Belated Birthday
Make your wish!
Nice post holic.
I am with H2H at 16. Assuming there is still a 16 by the time I press send.
Can’t believe you’ve shot down that Canadian Goose. Oh well, I guess it is exceptionally plump and ready for a right good plucking.
My gut says a 2-0 win for us. Early goal and a late one.
TS, just read your 638 in the previous. Eggsemplary!
Great post Holic I do come here often and I understand frustrations in fact Swansea are the bogey team this time around and there is nothing better then stuffing that welsh turkey in both holes….now lads come down please.
Last time like you mentioned before my own eyes when we played them, who saw Arshavin rescue our abysmal display so he’s definitely welcome to shoe in a goal and some glimpses of what I believe he still has in him. I may be wrong here but I would like to see him take charge in the middle a little bit sorry to say this but certainly in front of Ramsey.
Don’t get me wrong I do like Ramsey but he just has not produced in the games I thought he would have taken players apart as he did against City away what a performance. It’s a probably all of them so far but he did stand out, however don’t they get sick of watching themselves hitting a brick wall? I wish there was a quick cure so far the players I believed in have let us down.
I hope to see a response and some urgency at Swans on Sunday at least we deserve a little of that caviar you were talking about!
Happy New Year Holics yet again!
AtG
Spot on.
AA i believe is still deadly and capable.
What if – perish the thought – AW played him his natural position!
Im a huge TR7 fan too. Theyve both got the magic left. Im convinced.
Or … Ive just convincd myself!
Right. Culinary.
Im whipping up my old fervor for the squads greybeards.
The vintage lads as it were. They are moremlike the aged special reserve. Top shelf. Grand crus.
Ohhh. That was bad.
Right. I know the way out.
Cheers holics.
OK, so I actually did it…I actually back-drunk the last set of drinks and I am as stunned as ever by the capacity of almost everybody here to totally disagree with each other and still get along. Loving so much of what you all had to say but wanted to pick out this as my personal highlight:
“We don’t need a dribbler at all, dribblers are cunts. What we do need is a power runner in the Overmars mode, someone who can also drive in hard behind a defence without the ball, like Freddie used to. Ljungberg dribbling was almost comical, he had the worst stepover ever.
In fact I’d say since we started fucking about with dribblers we’ve lost the kind of powerful, get the fuck out of the way, football that truly made us a team worth watching. Tippy tappy dribbly wibbly, or getting run over by Vieira, Overmars and such like? I know what I prefer.”
- Nonny nails it for me there! Couldn’t have possibly put it better myself.
As for the Swansea game, I think that you may be off the mark ‘Holic with your score prediction. I expect a good old-fashioned knee-jerker from the team and a 3 or 4 goal margin of victory. Again, this will not actually prove much in terms of the longer term aspirations of the squad but will show the character that sadly went missing again against Southampton.
I also think that the midfield selection may be where the surprises lie. I have a sneaky feeling that LJW may be rested in favour of Ramsay and we may even see the Ox and Walcott on the flanks at the same time. Would actually like to see Ramsay get a run-out in the middle of the park and the idea of having two pacey wingers cutting inside and causing havoc with the full backs would be fairly sumptuous stuff too. Of course, they would both have to have a good game and get the sort of service (ball passed in front of them to feet and not a yard behind bouncing ten feet in the air!) that would give them the chance to show their quick feet off a bit.
But hey, fuck it, what do I know?!
As ever, fingers crossed that “that” Arsenal turn up on Sunday.
Come on your Gooners!
I look forward to a team like this tomorrow
Sczc
Jenk-Per-Kols-Gibbs
Arteta-Santi-Coq
Ox-Giroud-Arshavin
And for subs Theo in for Giroud, Poldoski for Arshavin, Rosciky for Santi. A very game changing substitution it should turn out to be.
I think the skipper needs some rest and don’t want to see Rambo in this game. This game will be energy sapping and mentally demanding. I back the little Russian to get a goal/assist and one goal each for OG and TW14.
Like Holic, we “Classenal” we need to show that ‘morrow.
Thundertinygooner @15 & NorCal @34
Have found the Junior Gunners well worth joining, from the pack they get when they join, to the many competitions they run plus Arsenal iplayer for free and the very regular emails. As a comparison, daughter is a mugsmasher (I know, I know its all down to her mother and wanting to be different to her dad!) and she joined the Liverpool equivilent, only lasted a year as she got hardly anything from them.
As an aside, actually found the Tollie after I dropped him off, wasn’t open and umbrellas were down, but two iconic locations in one day! special times….
Morning all!
My brief in this fine establishment has been reduced to a mainly watching one in the past 6 months but I’ve never really gone away, I’ve just been silently reading up the whole time.
Holic, I love the title – that’s the kind of pun I’d never have dreamt up and it has a comforting whiff of dominance and control about it. Speaking of which, since our last outing was a bit of a stinker, I expect the Red and White to come up smelling of roses tomorrow (and team spirit).
The Swans may have run us close (and beaten us) a few times of late but these results are anomalies surely?! Remember Dyer’s Dirty Dive in the away fixture that time? Exactly the kind of foul play that I don’t think they’ll get away with tomorrow.
With that in mind I have to go along with TW’s prediction and have punted on an extremely bullish 4-1 to the good guys. I know, I know, the Swans are bound to score more than one right? Well, tomorrow’s going to be different.
Have a great day Holic and Arsefans. UTA!
The carte blanche has arrived at last.
French Cup weekend, but I’m not sure what ties are on TV. Bordeaux don’t seem to be playing today.
Actually they seem to have put all the shit ties on today.
I’m guessing Lille vs Nîmes will be on tonight, but frankly, it’s an appalling selection of games, I don’t know who decides who plays when, but they’re cunts.
Bordeaux are at Chateauroux tomorrow at the very precise time of 14.02
I assume that fits in with some tv schedule?
And good morning Camberwell.
Nice to see you.
Hey ‘holic.
14.02? :s
Heh. Sadly it doesn’t fit in with watching the Arsenal then. Shoot these TV people.
It says 14.15 where I’m looking, with 6 games kicking off at the same time.
Morning all, for some reason I am feeling quite optimistic about tomorrow.
Only seven sleeps ’til London.
Drinks for all on the bar as usual!
I got the time off the Girondins website, right hand side of the results page.
Hooray for Lars.
8 sleeps here, I’m travelling on the day (but staying overnight)
http://www.girondins.com/matches/competitions/2013/resultats-11.shtml
Says 14.15 here, I’m not sure what page you are referring to :s
See agenda on the right hand side.
http://www.girondins.com/matches/en/competitions/2013/ligue1/resultats.shtml
Ah, I see now.
That site’s so hard to navigate, and blimey didn’t realise they had an English version.
Judging by all the ‘kick-off’ times being very weird on the right of that page, since the French version doesn’t have it, it may be their attempt to cater for the time difference!
I have now found the French equivalent page (the one I posted is slightly different)
http://www.girondins.com/matches/competitions/2013/ligue1/resultats.shtml
It has the ‘agenda’ bit on the right too, but without times.
Just paid £18.99 for Swindon Town Player until August. I want my bumps felt, as ‘holicdad would have said.
Newcastle one goal and one man down!
You bought a Swindon player? For Arsenal?
Enjoy the Di Canio interviews….
I am watching a stream of Brighton-Newcastle, and can once more do little but come to the conclusion that Stuart Robson must be the biggest idiot that has ever been allowed to be an “expert” on the game. He doesn’t even know the laws of the game and he keeps banging on about “we can’t take the contact out of football” every time there is a free kick no matter how dangerous the tackle is. Has he ever thought the ref was right to give a free kick? (well, any free kick that wasn’t against Arsenal, of course – everything negative towards us is good in his eyes)
Effin’ see you next Tuesday.
(and in case anyone’s wondering, Brighton are 1-0 up and Ameobi has been sent off for Newcastle and about 20 minutes to play)
I really hope David Villa is not coming over god damn it
2 up now Lars!
2-0 Brighton with less than five minutes to go – so the Magpies are out, then.
Ooh, abb was just a little bit quicker there
seagulls over magpies – Par-doh out
Hey Lars! Don’t want to embarrass you,but you sure know your footie!
I actually feel sorry for Mr Pardew
He seems affable enough 
Wake up holics! Time to watch Chelsea
abb, Pardew is anything but affable, I’d say. Two-faced hypocrite would be a better description
Laughing, Lars. what would do without all these colorful managers
And I don’t think frank Lampard should leave Chelsea. He is Chelsea! Got to respect that. Always good for a free kick
Hahaaaaa Noooocassle – 7 years and c(o)unting!
Lars knows. As usual
Watch Chelsea is one thing I will certainly not do, abb
.
Since there seems to be no decent French Cup game on TV this afternoon, Seagulls vs Magpies is where it stopped.
‘He is Chelsea’. Can’t think of a bigger insult, abb :p
I’d argue John Terry is Chelsea, even more.
Good day Ollie! Hope you’re feeling better.
TS – nice Sausage / Caviar squad analysis in previous drinks.
Abb,
Has anyone felt your bumps, matron (!) – see Holic @71 – all this talk of Pardew being affable. Just think back to his scrap with Arsene, when he tried to force him to join in that West Ham goal celebration.
And then, talk of Fr*nk L*mp*rd, and just after I’d finished my lunch.
And tomorrow, we look forward to some Swan Upping, and no more Jack Wilshere duck downing. Eider way, it will be close. Could come down to the feather light touch of Santi to score and mute those Waling Welshmen. If we lose this one, expect the manager to have a right cob on.
What will the Guvnor pen then ?
These puns are making me cyg, nit..
ohh Trev and Nonny sightings
Southampton 1 Chelsea 0 
Good preview ‘Holic.
Agree with you that we should field our “strongest” side. If we are to go out, then let’s go out with no excuses. Giroud would get the nod from me. I hope Rosicky gets at least half an hour which ever the way the game is going.
Difficult to predict what will happen given that we don’t know what Arsenal will turn up from game to game. My Spurs supporting mate thought we’d win and win well yesterday, so that’s good enough for me. 3-0 to the Arsenal gets my pound.
Just watched Newcastle – pitiful. Always had a soft spot for The Toon, despite getting a hiding from some of their fans in the early eighties, so on the one hand I’m a bit sorry to seem them go out. On the other hand, anything that causes creepy Pardew pain is always a good thing.
Abb – Pardew colourful ?? I know that you often teach us all a thing or two about being magnanimous and generous, but come on!!!! Only Pulis and Allardyce outdo him in the puke-inducing stakes.
As for Lampard, I agree with you that he symbolises Chelsea – fat, bloated, overrated, greedy, self-important, egotistical, thick poisonous, crooked … I could go on
Clive (last drinks) – Thanks for the heads up to the rant from the Liverpool fan. I was pretty surprised that Myles Palmer chose to publish it. I suppose that the writer was clearly a fan of Myles despite differing on Arsene should have given me a clue. He loves a bit of adulation does Myles.
As for the article itself, I thought it was pretty much on the money (especially when he compared Arsene’s strategy with the increasingly short-term policies utilised by Ferguson in what might be termed the autumn of his career).
That said, I think it’s pretty easy to invalidate some of the more hysterical criticism that Arsene receives (witness the hysteria that greeted his “Messi” remarks). What is far more difficult to counter is some of the justified criticism with regard to our transfer dealings since the Summer of 2011 and our continuing tactical inflexibility in that period. As Trev alluded to in his culinary post, it is surely time to give us a couple of tasty morsels from the top table, rather than more bread and water and promises of tomorrow.
My Spurs mate still remains a huge fan. As you say, it seems fans of other Clubs can still see things that a significant minority of our own support can’t. They would take him like a flash down at the Lane that’s for sure.
SteveT -As promised, I had a good old chat over a few Beers yesterday with Inspector Cole of the Yard (Joe’s cousin). He didn’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of the matter, but said that Joe had 3 offers when he left Chelsea – Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool. He said that Liverpool’s salary offer blew both Arsenal and Spurs out of the water, and that once Liverpool’s offer came in, there was no doubt as to where he would be playing. It was, as it always is, all about the money.
Nice one Tabs,
Agreed, especially about Rosicky.
And Lampardew – can’t really separate them that much, so I joined them together!
Both a pair of funts !
Tabs, Spot on about Arsene. One quality midfielder for me. Not greedy. We need to promote our youngsters!
Ba scores! Sneaky one :0
Interesting about Joe Cole too.
So much for all this stuff about Champions League football being vital to attract the best players – if we even agree that the best players have the biggest names – which we don’t.
Man City proved that you can sign more or less anyone if you offer them enough money.
And even someone you would think would leap at the chance of CL football, like Cole, proves that it is, as you say, all about the money.
Trev – Heh
Abb – I think we’re at least two, probably three, class players short short. With regard to the youngsters, it’s very very hard for them to break in now.
Of the plethora of youngsters either on the fringe or out on loan – Ryo, Campbell, Aneke, Afobe, Gnabry, Miquel, Yennaris, Meade, Eisfeld, – we’ll be doing well if one makes it at Arsenal. Two would be absolutely outstanding imo.
Good stuff, tabs.
Trev, “Lampardew”? Now that was a revolting thought
Pardew is colourful, but so is a pool of tramp sick.
WUUUUUUUUUUUN HUNDRED
Well in, Nonny! (but it was a tap-in after my fine assist…)
Hmm..Citeh playing Watford. Matej Vydra is playing for them, its one of the brightest czech talents, might actually watch that game to see how well he does.
Tabs glad you chose to expound on that. Miquel, Eisfeld and Gnarby for me. Real talent there. Love Yennaris and Meade’s spirit too. We must emulate Barca’s philosophy. Miquel can clear a ball like no one else while still managing to be spot on with his accuracy(gets the ball up field to one of our players).
Well in Nonny and heh
Bloody good analogy.
Trev @97 Indeed.
Cheers Lars.
tabs – if I had to choose two of the youngsters I really want to make it at Arsenal from your list, its Ryo and Eisfeld.
Nonny
Lars feisty assist! Hey Eandy 
Hey abb:)
Eandy, forgot about Ryo!
Yeah, he is not in spotlight that much like on last seasons loan, I really hope his time at Wigan will do him any good.
Abb @104 -Always tricky to predict who will make it Abb. So many things can interrupt or destroy a youngster’s career – injury, temptation etc.
I share your enthusiasm for the three you mention.
I think Miquel is a good player and will have a good career. Whether that will be at Arsenal I’m not so sure.
Eisfeld is a bit of a mystery. Great game at Reading and then we haven’t seen him since. A big shame that Arsene hasn’t even seen fit to put him on the bench.
Ryo seems to be struggling to get a game at Wigan, though I believe he’s been injured.
Word at the Club is that the two they have the highest hopes for are Gnabry and Akpom.
Time will tell.
Hi Eandy, yep those two seem nearer than most.
Great goal at 100, Nonny
Tabs, Eandy. In retrospect, wish AW had played our reserves against Bradford City.
The Saints not faring well. Guess no upset in this one.
What abb said at 114. So I don’t know about tomorrow.
Let’s just not lose.
Looks like the good FA Cup results stopped after the Brighton game.
AW would have been buried Abb, if we’d have gone out after fielding the Reserves.
I thought he played the right side. They just didn’t perform for him.
‘AW would have been buried’.
Massive heh, tabs. As if he didn’t anyway….
Oh I realize that Ollie and Tabs. Just that we haven’t seen much of them this season
Ba, 2nd goal. A real one:)
Heh Ollie – Buried “deeper” than
Ba gets his second. Chelsea game off.
than=then
Second goal by Ba, cue outrage from the FM playing generation that we didn’t “just get him before Chelsea did”.
In retrospect I was somehow strangely disappointed when I saw the teamsheet to play Bradford in the COC. I was looking forward to seeing the usual mix of 1st team and reserves. I thought a mixed team would be more motivated than the 1st string players who thought they could just turn up and beat Bradford. Anyway, horse through the gate. Hoping for a victory tomorrow.
I think it’s one of these rare occasions where I’ll have to disagree with you. I’m not sure it’d have made any difference to the burial, or if any, I suspect it would have been lesser.
Still it’s annoying that we’re having this debate due to the size of a crossbar or a post.
I’m only remembering now that we lost on penalties, not 2-0
Lars 124, yes, it’s outrageous, shurely.
*sighs*
Drink for Impec1 too (same feelings)
126 was in response to tabs, of course, not Impec1.
Well done Mr Lampard. 2nd highest scorer for Chelsea of all time. Respect
Yeh can’t disagree with you really Ollie, or Impec1
At the time, and before it all unravelled, I was pleased Arsene played a strong side, so I can’t really argue for something different now.
As you say, it’s all about the width of a post anyway.
Tabs, Trev. I will tell you the full facts as I know them re Joe Cole next week if I make it to the Tollie. Suffice to say that if Cesc was going then Joe Cole would have been an Arsenal player.
In cycling news, it appears Lance Armstrong may be on the verge of a Catholic conversion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20921004
Confess, confess, confess!
Ba with a brace! Why didn’t we sign him before Chelski!!????
That’s for you Lars.
I said before that I would have liked to sign Ba, but I understand its not that easy and what I think counts for ZERO.
Cheers all.
Oh and I am from the FM generation but have moved on to satellite radio.
Heh@134
NorCal. I am from the transistor generation but have moved to internet radio. It may be another way of saying the same thing as you, I’m not sure about my technological definitions.
Today’s games had little of interest, other than the pinball wizard connection. (From Soho — kind of near Chelsea and the Ba business – down to Brighton, etc.)
Abb. Respect for Fat Frank? Really??
Evening Holics.
Nice preview.
We need the strongest, most focused, least jaded, most hand-brake-free, mentally strong group to turn up tomorrow.
Sort it out, Arsene. Throw that fuckin’ hand-brake away FFS.
Bath,
Maybe the hand break will go out on loan with the rest of the “wood”!
Hopefully NorCal, but it does seem to be a recurrent feature of the group psychology. I fear it’s in the DNA.
RVP v west ham. Let’s all be honest here. How much have we missed that?
There you go Trev. There is your Michelin star main course just there. Sadly we traded it and replaced it with an all you can eat buffet and a free trip to the salad bar.
The moment Carlton Cole was too slow to react to score that sitter you just knew Cunt van Cuntie was going to make it 2-2 in stoppage time and sure enough…
He did take it very well. We have indeed created a monster as said on the arses.
143, Brilliant. Wow. Forgot what that was like compared to our pedestrian patterns.
Steve T @142,
A one-man team if ever there was one. If the cunt gets injured, which I hope he does as he invariably was with us for most of his career, then we’ll see just how good they really are! He’s just papering over their considerable cracks this season, as many have alluded to here and outside. The reality will kick in eventually that I’m sure off! COYBG!
Thought Joe Cole had a descent game. What might have been a couple of seasons ago perhaps???
Am I the only one that is fucked off with having to see Van Pussy as Purple Nose’s talisman?
I said I would rather have taken £8 from Juve than £20m from the Manc clubs in the summer after he released his statement and I stand by that statement forever more.
Where would those f*ckers be without him? Not 7pts clear in the league and still in the FA Cup that’s for sure.
F*ckity f*ck f*ck.
Yeah yeah, I know I should be only concerned with matters Arsenal but still hurts that we sold purple nose our best player. Twenty Four mil or not. #Treasonous.
Arsene better be f*cking joking when he says its gonna be a quiet transfer window!!!
No big names just a few decent rass players. Cha!!
Van Persie is a cunt in League with the devil who we couldn’t keep even if we tried, because he’d decided to fuck off and fuck us over.
And yes, Man U equalised in the last minute at West Ham in the FA Cup. Big fucking deal.
Meh.
Dan. Have you ever stopped to think where we would have ended up last season if he had had 3 months out?
I’m with you North Bank 1 – it’s like a dagger to the heart every time he does that.
But remember, he was sold for football reasons…..
Man U equalize for the purpose of adding another replay to their fixture list. May they all get injured in an unfruitful attempt to win the replay. Is it any coincidence they play their fixtures at the old toilet?
NB – with you re RVp – what was he unhappy with that he chosr to leave – obviously the money comes in later
Also why are we too slow at buying- or are we not attractive enough- the money aspects or we do not sell ourselves assertively
Seriously are you people moaning because some cunt scored an equaliser for another team in the FA Cup 3rd round?
Yes he was our cunt, yes he’s a bit good at football, but it’s nothing new, and it doesn’t date from today.
zico, that infamous ‘football reasons’ quote from PHW was, I suspect, said in jest…..
North Bank, Zico etc. Players come and go. That is life. Like everyone else I would have loved him to have stayed. But when we decided to cash in the monstrous fuck up was not replacing him.
I’m pissed Ollie because 6 months plus down the line we are still no closer to identifying his replacement.
I hear you, Steve, but it still doesn’t make it any easier.
The smug soundbites from Ferguson makes it even worse.
Ollie – if so, then the old coot is even further out of touch with reality than I thought – it is not remotely funny.
Steve, we have scored more goals so far this season than at the same point last season. Only ManU have scored more in the league despite us having played a game less than almost all other teams. Our problems are not mainly in the part of the team where he would have played had he stayed, we miss a midfield player that can shield the back four better and win back the ball a bit more often so not getting a proper physical midfielder (i.e. a Diaby, only fit and more consistent) is the fuckup if you ask me.
Those are my 2p anyway.
Well, I’m just glad I was idealistic enough to say, in the summer, that if we really didn’t need the money – and the board say we budget to qualify for the CL four times out of five – we should just refuse to sell.
He would have had to perform to secure his “dream” move at the end of this season, and our qualification would probably be looking better than it does at the moment.
As it is, we now have to watch him winning the title almost single handedly for Man Bloody Ure, and now van der Sar, who is currently Director of Football at Ajax, says he advised van Persie to go to Man Utd because we had become a feeder club to the top contenders.
I don’t necessarily agree with that – but it’s sad that that is the perception.
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
Fair enough Lars, but would we have gone through several entire games with barely a shot on goal.
How many more goals and wins would we have had…..
Anyway, it’s an old, tired argument …….
Zico. It hurts and frustrates me more and more everyday.
Lars. We have no one that comes close to his quality. We have no real turn to player. We have no genuine game changer. Your goals scored stat is interesting but you need to remember that 18 have come in 3 games against sides who will do well to stay up.
Steve, I’m afraid no single player can replace him, sadly.
I’m miffed that we haven’t improved the squad options more, but we were never going to have a ‘new van Persie’ straight away. Unless we signed Messi, of course!
And I’m with Lars again.
And I hope Gervinho equally gets some praise if ever the unlikely happens and he gets an injury-time equaliser tomorrow
We are the Arsenal, so fuck all the rest.
I think Spurs will be all right for staying up, sadly, Steve
Gervinho will only score if it is with his mysterious invisible woman on the half way line.
I’m beginning to think you’re delirious, Ollster
Good evening, all.
I’ve been on the move for the past few days so i couldn’t post but i sure as hell read all the beautiful drinks from all the usual suspects and some more from our not too intelligent friends, i’m now settled in a ‘new house’, in a new state, in a diffrent part of my country, the next ten months promises to be fun, i will be teaching in a secondary school and trying to help the community in any way i can. I’ve found a place (two actually) where i can watch matches, i will make my debut tommorow, and hopefully the boys on red and white will make it one to remember, up The Arse!!!
Good stuff and good luck, Cent!
Steve T@150,
Of course I have, and where would ManU be now too without him this season? Certainly not 7 points ahead in the league and still not in the FA cup!
Any world class striker will make a difference to a side as he will more likely than not score you goals relative to others. Ask yourself this, for the past 8 seasons, all of which we’ve qualified for the CL and got past the group stages in, was he ever present for us? Yes he was important for us last season as he will prove to be for ManU, should he stay fit; which I hope he doesn’t so we can see exactly how much better a side they really are than us and the rest.
Of course, there is no need to dwell on him any longer as one player a club does not make but please can we not ignore the fact that any player of that calibre in that role will make an ordinary side look incredible. I for one feel that David Villá is still such a world-class striker of that calibre and he would very easily fill that void for the remainder of this season for us and the next until we can bring in another. Demba Ba, for all that some are irate about his non-acquisition, is not such a world-class striker! Time will tell on RVP significance this season for both us and Auld Purplenose! Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Trev, we have – but then again we played like shit several times last season too even with him in the team. Swansea at home (won thanks to a Vorm howler), Wolves at home (drew 1-1), Swansea away (RvP missed a one v one to put us 2-0 up if memory serves me), Fulham away (lost to the last kick of the game after having been pinned back for 60+ minutes), Sunderland away in the cup, ManU away, Spurs away and probably a few more too where we barely troubled the defense.
I maintain that more strikers is not the whole (or only, rather) answer. We need a physical midfield player, if I could choose one player from any other PL team I’d take Yaya Toure any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Don’t get me wrong, of course I would have wanted that traitor to have stayed and be motivated, but as I have said that would also have brought the risk of “let’s give it to RvP and he’ll sort us” like we saw with Henry towards the end and started to see with Cesc in his last season.
But as you said, it’s a tired old argument so let’s focus on beating Swansea tomorrow and start the journey towards that title that BtM has promised we will win this season
Lars @168 knows!
BtM too!
I love the fact that I can always rely on Lars.
Wallet or no wallet.
Dan. Ask yourself this. In the previous 8 seasons would you say the quality if players at our disposal is better or worse than it is now?
I agree with Ollie and Lars. Bloody good player scores bloody good goal. Is this news? He fucked us over. Well over him, the cunt.
In other news, “Splash” must be a new low in the history of British Television Broadcasting. So fucking awful that I actually can’t tear myself away from it and go to the Pub. Everyone involved in the sorry mess, from the shit presenters to the shit judges to the Z-list divers should be strung up by the bollocks/fanny and slowly tortured until they die.
Rant over. Going to the Pub.
Watched a bit of the table football World Championship last night, now catching the last leg of the Doubles final, not sure how it works : they’re playing on a different model even during the same set.
There’s the good old Bonzini, and there’s another model, completely different.
Yeah, silly me. Gervinho, the saviour of Arsenal Football Club. Fuck me, how did I miss that? I can’t believe it slipped by unnoticed.
heh, finished on an own goal.
Luxemburg win.
Tabs.
Is Gareth chimp boy Bale one of the judges.
*goes on over to filmon.com to check out Splash*
Heh Steve
Steve T,
Certainly not but I still genuinely feel that the squad is good enough with just a couple of additions in key areas and a change in collective team application and mentality, and deployment of players in their correct positions by the coaching staff, to achieve at least the same result as previous years – qualification for the CL.
In further answer to the quality of our squad, if we break it down to the last great squad we had that beat Barcelona at home; which included RVP, Cesc, Song and Nasri; clearly “no”, the players at our disposal are not good enough. But as has always been the case for the past few years, and arguably this year too, our first 11 and first choice substitutes, when all fit and healthy, are competitive at the highest level. Sadly, after that, it all becomes a little frail. That, unfortunately, has been the case for the past 8 seasons and will be again this; but that doesn’t mean that Top 3 and at least one trophy is not attainable with this squad if the application and deployment of those at our disposal is improved on by both the management, coaching staff and players themselves.
Heh Steve @ 177.
Do you know something Lars. I suggested Yaya Toure back in the days when Kolo was still here. I got absolutely slaughtered for it in here.
Oh well. We got Gervinho, Park and Chamakh so all is not lost??????
Now, what was that about dining at the Little Chef?????
I’m off out now to buy some Golden Osetra caviar for late supper.
Be the best you can be Dan. That’s all I have ever asked. Sadly, for the last 8 years we have been nowhere near that and I for one do not consider it acceptable. Sadly, watching RVP tonight just opens up old wounds and rubs even more salt into them.
Well, Splash have now been on for about ten minutes and so far absolutely nothing has happened apart from some panel of judges (one of which is Jo Brand) talking about nothing in partucular. Starting to see where tabs is coming from
Cent, Good luck, I’m excited for you. You will do well lad
Steve T,
Absolutely mate and I think we all know why that might have been?!
I only hope that the illuminaté don’t continue to bite-off our nose to spite our face cos the face it becoming right proper mangled now, and no measure of cosmetic surgey will be able to make one’s appearance beautiful again to hook-up a date or four! COYBG!
Steve, I must confess that before he moved to Man City I wasn’t that impressed with hime either. When he played for Barca I thought he was mostly rather clumsy with a poor first touch and they did let him go to City without much of a fight.
Dan. In my opinion this is probably the most important transfer window in recent history. If we get this one wrong then we will be beyond the plastic surgery stage. We might just have reached transplant time.
I see Stuart McFarlane has just tweeted:
‘Just read something in the Sunday Mirror about Arsenal that I know is 100% incorrect’.
Well, so I guess, whatever is reported from the Sunday Mirror tomorrow should be pushed to the side
Lars. In my humble opinion he has been ideal for us for years. He was the logical replacement for Paddy.
8ball, Yes I do. Alas, when a player devotes his career to one club, he is maligned by fans when he starts to slow down a bit. As Frank proved today, he still can contribute. RVP is one of the best strikers in the world but I will struggle to sing his praises…loyalty is #1 for me. Probably why I shy I away from the term ‘deadwood’
Vacant eyes hiding so much from public view. 
Steve,
It most certainly is!!! I sure to God hope that they do get it right!
But what i feel is most important this January is a right proper change in the attitude, character, responsibility and consistent commitment of the entire playing and coaching staff. And in particular, Arsene becoming aware of his own weaknesses and limitations as well as those of his players.
Up the Arse!
Ollie and Abb, Thanks for the kind words, i really appreciate them.
Lars, Steve T, TaBS and DanC, who is this Van Persie you people speak of? Did he ever play for us? Was he any good?
Lumps it upfield…
…regains control of the ball and goes on a mazy runs…
Runs = run.
…beats one…
…Beats the rest of the defense and lays it on a plate…
Runs on the pitch barefooted, pings it in!
Wenger should have recorded the phones call where purple nose begged him to sell Van Pussy then put that shit out on the internet.
“No you can’t fucking ‘ave ‘im now fuck orf” followed by the dial tone….
Hahahahaha, well in Nursie!
What a tidy assist Cent, you are a Pro
Heh @ 201.
Abb, i’m learning from the best (Ollie). Good night, everyone.
Cheers cent.
Sounds like good work.
Good luck to you sir!
The Dutch DBag has what, half maniou’s goals?
Fucking one man team they are.
Cent,
Yes good luck with the new location and assignment.
DanC,
I was one of those ones that wanted Demba Ba. I don’t think he is world class but I do think he would have offered us a PL experienced goal scorer. And would have contributed more that Chamakh, NB52, and gervinho all together. In the end we miss more than we get so I am not going to get my knickers in a wad wondering about ” ifs”. The same goes for RvP. He’s gone. Done. Gone. No ” ifs”.
I agree with above, we have not done as well as we should the last 8 years. We seem to be in the ” do just enough” mindset. This month we will see if that has changed. I don’t have high hopes. Please prove us wrong AW. Go out at least swinging!
Nite Cent. Take care. Hey Homer
Splendid goal, abb!
Bit of a one-man show for the assist, Cent
Thanks Ollie ) Hey NorCal, go out swinging? Wolfie would be delighted!
Hey abb. how ya doing sir?
Looks all good from the drinks of the last week.
Loving the debate going on here. All credit to the Guvnor.
Im in and out these days.work calls.
Or make that, oppresses. Ha! Clients: I need them. But what a pain i. The rear.
I say we spank swansea 3-1 tomorrow.
OG with a brace. And the Ox!!!!
Great write up, as always H.
I’m gonna say something I’m not sure many will agree with.
I love Steve Bould to bits but I think his introduction has hurt both our offensive and defensive play.
I’ll explain.
I am absolutely convinced that SB is the reason we’re defending a lot deeper. This might be because Arteta at the holding role makes our engine room a bit lightweight so they came up with a plan to help him with more bodies closer to him when we press the ball once the opposition is in their final third. We won’t know until we get someone else to play the holding role or until Diaby gets back.
What that causes is us to have less possession and to give away more chances than usual (last season we gave away the least amount of chances). In fact Woj has needed to work a whole lot since he came back from injury.
On the offensive side, this reminds me a lot of basketball and a half court offense as opposed to a running offense.
Because we win the ball in our half, we need to make up more ground in order to create chances. The only one who can create a proper counter attack is Theo. the others simply can’t catch up to him.
When we do try to create by possession we get stuck by teams compacting the middle and our fullbacks suffering from a dip of form crossing wise so we don’t create a whole lot (for the bulk of the season).
Poldi’s goal against Newcastle is for me the perfect example of how we should play. JW in the hole dispossessing the opposition in their half, gets the ball on the edge of the box and has two players in the box (Poldi and Theo) and another on the edge of the box (Ox).
Breaking down opposition has become very hard all over the world, regardless of how much a team spends. Chelsea spent £80m this summer but couldn’t break down QPR, United couldn’t break down Norwich, City couldn’t break down Sunderland…
As opposed to common belief, we DO have a plan B. in order for it to work we need better crossers on the flanks. That plan is Olivier Giroud’s aerial prowess.
I am convinced that our best option both offensively and defensively would be to press high up the pitch and play JW in the hole, Santi on the right (can cross and go past his defender), and Diaby/signing as a box to box.
But then again, I ain’t no football manager.
Well eff me snir. That sounded pretty football manager-ish.
I may need a minute of 30 to process that. Ha!
Cent, I managed to miss you drink@165 – I wish you good luck with your new job!
Snir,
I thought you wanted Ivan’s job, not arsene’s?
I agree with the pressing. I also think ( despite Nonny and others thinking they are worthless c@nts) that we need a dribbler that can make teams commit and move out of position by putting pressure on more than one guy.
Ah well. Lets hope we get a roaring performance tomorrow.
I had a sneak preview of that drink.
In future I’m going to create a fake Snir account and then post amalgamations of his rumblings to me.
Do I win anything?
Im hearing you snir.
And if youre right that indicstes that AW is a whole lot savvier than anyo e gives hom credit for.
He did say at the start that getti g this squad into the CL would be his greatest achievment.
Perhaps noone knows better than AW the limited resources and inexperienced players he has to work with. Assuming thats true, and i give you BIG props for sleuthing that out, than AW is more the geniuos than anyone would ever have thought.
There. Im taking my typo cresting arse off.
Rounf on my tab for all the stragglers still in the bar.
Cheers holics.
Ramblings …..
I’m not hungry. Or discontent.
In other news; Bob Marley appeared on TOTP??
One final thought.
Despite all evidence to he contrary, i do have all my appendages.
There. Now im off.
I see the RVP saga is still a very touchy subject for some in the bar.
Personally i have no quibble with him seeking fame and glory at another Club if the opportunity presents itself.
Clubs are very quick to offload players when they have reached or are near their use by date if it suits them,so they cannot complain if one wants to leave for pastures new when at or near his prime.
Whatever the whys and wherefores about his contract not being renewed earlier,it’s history now,and if he happens to win a few trophies at his new club then good luck to him.
But for the odd success story of players leaving the Arse,there are plenty of tales of woe.
Overmars/Petit/Anelka/Hleb/Flamini/Adebayor,to name a few.
Even Fabregas cannot get a regular run in the Barca team,Song hardly plays at all.
In fact in a Christmas poll in Spain,they voted on the 2 best and 2 worst buys of the season,and guess who the 2 worst buys were by a country mile,??
You guessed it,Song/Modric.
I know Nasri/Clichy/Toure have had reasonable success at City,winning a Premiership,but i would argue that they were only parts of a very large squad at City,and certainly weren’t classed as walk up starts to be on the first eleven team sheet every week,like the Invincibles were.
Also they have not been able to get City past the group stages of the CL for 2 seasons running.
So for all RVP”s current golden run of form in the 6 months since he left,i would argue he is the exception to the rule in terms of players succeeding after leaving the Arse.
So good luck to him i say,as long as he misses a sitter in the last minute at the Emirates at the end of April,as we win 2-1 in a crucial league match,that just about ends their title hopes,and guarantees our place in the CL next season,and he also misses the crucial penalty as we win the CL final 5-4 in the shootout, after extra time ends all square.!!
Cheers
The Sweeper.
Oh my goodness me, please let these be faker than Fake McFakely from Fakeville…
http://oi46.tinypic.com/24ay3pl.jpg
Ground control to Major Mounty: you have ceased to be amusing.
Sweeper! Lovely post.
NorCal. Amen!
We’re not defending deeper are we? I thought we were holding a more cohesive defensive line around the 20 yard or so mark, not exactly pinned back on the penalty spot, that.
What IS hurting us is players dropping deeper to collect the ball and being unable to move it quickly.
It is interesting that after the *thinks* Monday night game when Walcott played up front for the first time, the only blogs I read suggested that his movement wasn’t up to much, whereas the likes of Gary Neville, who watches the game from a high angle camera we don;t see that covers the whole pitch, made a point of saying that his movement was first class but he wasn’t given the ball quickly.
This is not another BIG UP FEO post, but one to suggest that our problem is moving the ball too slowly, not defending too deep.
Our defending is much deeper than previous seasons. Our midfield used to be positioned past the half way line, now it’s 30 yards from goal.
The reason we’re moving the ball slowly is because we defend too deep. It basically means that we have the ball in the opposition’s final third after the opposition has already got all his players back from their attack.
That compactness (caused by teams getting enough players behind the ball ’cause we don’t break with speed, and have a lot of ground to cover) is causing us to pass slowly and more sideways than forward.
Nurse Abb @200. Seldom have we seen such a goal. Not even those of us without shoe fetishes.
Abb @192. You brought me round to respecting that aspect of the man, his loyalty and his consistency. But not his ratlike countenance, now or ever.
Snir,
Your analysis makes some sense but surely the defending deep is also partly due to the our lack of pace in the side and the BFG. We do play a high-backline at stages during matches.
My biggest concern with the back 5 is the distribution and movement of the ball out from defence under mild pressure – it is too pedestrian as if on a training session and side-to-side with no real progressive thinking behind it. Our goal-keeper and central defenders just are not good enough at moving the ball progressively and are regularly caught out within matches showing them to be technically deficient in this or afraid. I don’t have much confidence in their ability, at present to work the ball out of defence and help the middle third players.
Nonny @227 knows.
Goonersince54 knows.
@223,
Please excuse me whilst I change my underpants from uncontrollable urinary incontinence! “Houston, we have a problem”! Genius! You clearly right your own material?! No one else certainly could!
Up the Arse – hole!
“Soothsayer” Snir,
I need some transfer news. Been waiting all week for this….
If our midfield was defending past the halfway line (it wasn’t, I think you’re over egging it by at least 20 yards to support your point) it’s no wonder our defence was absolute gash last year.
Lars,
Good post @168.
I agree with you and disagree with….. Oh, me.
Still wish we hadn’t sold him to a rival though.
Cent,
Good luck with all the new challenges.
Correction, Nonny @225 knows, and at 232.
The back 5 needs to use its own more initiative at times when they have the ball with them in the final third; as they have far more this season that most as side squeeze the middle third and our midfield. The rigidity of the defence to play the ball always to a midfielder is hurting the initiation of attacks and is far too predictable. A bit of intelligence would mean that you don’t always need to involve the midfield; by-pass it at times to create different points of attack. The threat of direct, accurate balls over the midfield to OG (using his height and strength) or over the backline to Theo (using his pace) which ignore the defence would free up more options and time for the defence to contribute more to out attacking potency. It’s not rocket science really; is it 223?!
Dyspepsia appears to be the order of the day (night?) here. So, on the bright side … Win our game in hand and we’re still only 3 points off third place.
Then win our next three games and we’ll be closing in on the leaders!
Ooops, I just woke up from a daydream…
Oskar
Sorry lots of typos, I meant “which ignore the midfield”…you know what I mean?!
DanC,
Are you asking me or our Canukian Hungarian Chipper Welsh Goose that infests this blog daily with tripe and expects a different response?
If its me, well I never claimed to be smart
Agree with Nonny re Walcott’s movement – at times.
Leaving aside his reluctance to get back and defend, his eagerness to get forwards is generally good.
Many times this season, from my perch in West Upper, I’ve seen him getting on his bike, only to have to check the run because the possibility has not been spotted, or has been eschewed.
It’s especially frustrating when the ball goes to the full back, then to Walcott then, instead of the spin and run to the ball over the top, the ball is just passed back to the centre back or square, and start all over again.
That should improve now Jack is back as he always looks forwards first.
The Canugarian Welsh Goose has gone viral.
He could be anyone. Used to also infest the place as ‘Stingy Voyeur’, ‘Stingy Voyageur’ and ‘Theo Vannasregas’ or some such.
The only way to really be sure is to look for a badly written load of negative bollocks, with lots of grammatical errors.
Hi 8ball
Missed your company today. I endorse the second part of your reply to me 
8ball,
Lampard loyal ?
Think £170,000 per week may have something to do with it.
Didn’t seem a terrifically loyal act when they all refused to try for AVB last season.
DanC, Hey there. Astute observation by you “A bit of intelligence would mean that you don’t always need to involve the midfield”. Amen brother. Just my point about what our Miquel is capable of doing
Trev, John Terry is a bully. Look how he put Ashley Cole on the hot seat. Think Frank would suck it up and do his job, imho.
Not sure what you mean Abb, to be honest.
“Frank” didn’t do his job for AVB.
All the Chelsea old guard whose positions were threatened by AVB, suddenly suffered an amazing loss of form and determination until the very day that di Matteo took over and put them all back in the team together.
Hello??? Is his thing on?
I think my last post was deleted!!
Ha!… Looks like im now in the rouges gallery. Bummer.
No you aren’t Homer, the poster you referred to is
*alarms blaring in the background*
In rushes Mr. Receptacle to Dr Feelgoods office
” Doctor, there has been an awful security breach down in the animal testing lab. ”
Feelgood: Oh? What seems to be the issue?
Mr Receptacle: Well, Wolfie was looking…
Feelgood: Wolfie? Who let Wolfie get near the animals? Was she wearing any protection?
Mr Receptacle: Protection? She did have on her pink tutu.
Feelgood: Pink tutu? Tut tut.
Mr Receptacle: That’s beside the point, Wolfie had here bitch with her. You know that dog Cosup? Well, the bitch was in heat and all hell broke out down there.
Feelgood: what’s the damage?
Mr Receptacle: breeding and lots of it. I saw a Canadian goose, a Hungarian vizsla and a few Welsh sheep get involved.
Feelgood: what did Wolfgang do?
Mr Receptacle: She turned on soft jazz and dimmed the lights.
Feelgood: Ah, yes. Well notify social services, the space agency, animal husbandry, border patrol, and the CDC that we may see an uptick of viral tripe.
LOL holic!!
You got me there twice!
So i just resd yhe FA cup results.
Its not just that the Dutch Dbag is a goal scoring machine.
Its that AW MADE him that goal scoring machine. But the. The Dutch Dbag stabbed AW – and all of us – in the back.
Loyalty my friends. In a world gone mad with money and power – what still counts is where a man’s heart lies.
The Dutch Dbag’s heart is black. He is a shit. Amd i hope he rots inhell – or Manchester, whichever is closer.
Thats it rant over.
I still say 3-1 to the good guys tomorrow. OG and the Ox.
Mr Receptacle.
That’s just my point Trev. JT engineered it. Frank just isn’t as prolific as he use to be (don’t think it was an act).
Mr Receptacle
NorCal @237,
Not you fella, don’t think you’re infected quite yet!
Abbs @242,
Cheers Nursie.
MA8 certainly is capable of such directness and vision however most sides have sussed that out and prevent him receiving the ball or deny him time on the ball. Now if the back four, particularly the central defenders, could take the slack and find the definitive pass themselves, then well, wouldn’t that be something?! Question is, are they technically proficient and competent enough for the this assisting role? Doesn’t appear so at present and they look very jittery when they have no one to pass to rather than appear calm and relaxed. More patience and intelligence and less haste and naivety.
All Chavskis are cunts; no exceptions!
@247,
Heh
Nonny, it’s not the reason why we conceded a lot.
Barca play that way and they don’t concede that much.
They are, however extremely vulnerable when a team gets through thief first line of pressure (i.e AA’s goal).
That’s what we were. Try to think how many times Woj was faced with a striker in a 1v1 situation last season.
Anyhoo.
Im with BtM
OG for 20 goals. One trophy.
And i say LP for 15 goals. And Feo … FEO!!… For 20+ goals.
Striker indeed!
Talk about obscure references in the titles. Swan upping turns out to be a real life event.
http://newsquake.netscape.com/photos/the-week-in-photos-07-19/930874/
Is this site educational, or what??
Check out the odd one in the US TV listings for English football tomorrow on this site:
http://epltalk.com/premier-league-tv-schedule/
Sunday, January 6:
Swansea City vs Arsenal (FA Cup), 8:30am, FOX Soccer
Mansfield Town vs Liverpool (FA Cup), 11am, FOX Soccer
Downton Abbey (3rd Season debut), 9pm, PBS
Heh@233
Snir, we don’t concede a lot this season. Iirc, only two teams have conceded less in the league. It’s the old inconsistency issue here as well as in the attacking play, not to mention the fact that for almost half the league games so far we had to play Mannone in goal.
Right, brekkie time…
Lars, we don’t concede a lot, we concede a lot more chances than usual.
Part of the reason we don’t concede a lot is Woj who’s been very impressive.
It’s 16 yrs since we last lost in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.
Due for a loss then.!!
Bugger.
Heh, Clive.
Can’t recall when so many Gooners were so nervous about the outcome of a third round tie.
Having said that I fail to see how the bookies make us favourites…
http://angryofislington.com/2011/12/27/when-did-the-arsenal-become-just-arsenal/
Interesting
Morning H
I guess it is symptomatic of our inconsistency this season that so many of us are concerned about the Swansea game.
The only thing in our favor maybe,is that Swansea may have one eye on the League Cup semi final against Chelsea midweek.
Regardless,if we turn up with our Southampton hats on,then we could be in for a long afternoon.
Bookies favorites.??
Baffling.
I’m a bit baffled as why we shouldn’t be favourites, ‘holic, to be honest.
Yes they beat us at home last time around, yes we only just draw at Southampton, but pedigree always comes into the equation, and we’re on a WWWWD run of form, which isn’t too bad.
No idea what will happen, we might lose, but that bit doesn’t seem that…. odd to me.
Hope the HT goes all the way to Swansea.
(if I were a betting man, I’d bet on a draw though, I’ll admit it)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/05/arsene-wenger-arsenal-swansea
A must read Amy piece with a great snakes and ladders analogy.
Amy is most definitely on the fair side of the barometer. Arsene needs results, starting today.
“Stale cake, corked wine and disco lights that don’t work.”
Nice one, Amy. Which one is Gervinho?
‘Appen, ‘h – ‘appen. (ComonUreds – please…and thanks in advance(?).)
Maybe it is time to think the unthinkable and consider buying technically limited players who can fight and organise. This would mean dropping a Cazorla or even a Wilshere, but if they can’t provide what we need consistently, time to go… And I pick central midfield rather than wide or defence, because midfield is where it should all happen for this team.
At the moment our team is like a cake recipe with fuck all in it apart from sugar. Flour required.
Morning all,ollie what story from the mirror is Bull the mcarthy to arsenal,mbia to arse,villa getting a call from arsene,or west ham director apologising for chamack?
also watching the SSupplement arsenes losing his knack for doing deals.anybody think these jurnos are on the ball.
Good morning, all.
A heartfelt thanks to Homer, Norcal, Lars and Trev for their good wishes, i appreciate every one of them.
Ollie @210, the movement upfront was non-existent so i took the game by the scruff of the neck and dribbled my way through to goal, but i promise i will make a team goal next time, meastro.
Clive knows @221.
Lars, what scruffy pieces of clothing that is, they better be fake.
I’m going to nap now, grab lunch when i wake up and go watch the game. Any type win for us will be accepted by me. Up the Classenal.
Time to head for the pub, so…
Come on Arsenal!
I would genuinely love to sit and listen to Esso and Nonny having a chat! Probably would never stop laughing.
You might be surprised, Trev
heh
He wouldn’t want to chat to the likes of me, because he doesn’t want to listen to moaning old cunts all day, which is fair enough.
No Rosicky, Ox or Podolski.
Strange team selection.
Gone for graft. Ok for an hour, then hopefully bring on the more technical players to win it.
That is the theory…
That has to be a 442 with Santi and Ramsey as the wingers or a 433 with Santi and Walcott as the wingers.
If there’s a rock like performance at the back, do you think the penny might drop that his best defence should not include the captain?
Afternoon
As the times draws closer I am not as nervous as I thought I might be. Dont get me wrong I dont think this is an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, its that I had a wonderful dream and lets put it this way we won 5-1.
I dont remember who was at fault for us concieving a goal but I do remember it being a very late who could give a f**k sort of goal the games over.
So here is hopping for dreams to come true !
That should read conceeding or can you concieve a goal, I am going with NO !
Greetings
Surely AW isn’t going to play Rambo on the wing. No Jenks on the bench again, Why? When is Rosicky going to get on the pitch? At least the BFG is back and Giroud up front.
Not very hopeful.
About to open a bottle of Albarino!
As always COYRs
Oh great, Ramsey selected over The Ox and Podolski. I know I’m going to get stick from a lot of people in this bar but this selection flies in the face of logic and merit and is precisely why I think Wenger has lost the plot
Hi all, let me thank all of y’all for keeping some of us updated with arsenal news. Now ready to watch this damn game from any good stream here in myrtle beach South Carolina..any good stream suggestions please!? And thank you
and if any gooner here is ever here in the south, please hit me up..
Go gooners
http://www.hahasport.com/v-4/10/52/v-505342.html
That should have our game on. Usually a good browser stream
Here list of other streams
http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=185117&part=sports
thanks ‘gays’ really appreciate it…
how about 5-1 to The Arsenal!!
COYRRR
Nervous but in a good way
Holics enjoy!
Red shirts
White sleeves
FFS
Agree Nonny (again) – it’s an abomination.
This cup version is the worst, the one with white numbers and names is more lookable at..this one is just …bleh
Red’s to win – any scorey will do
Good start!
Bright start..keep it up lads!
Great header by Bac
Woj mind blowing save!
good save
Get in!
Theo involved, good to see!
Nice one Eandy
Timely assist Cog!
Bac looking sharp.
a touch of the after you no after you:
Hey @ 304
best chance yet.
How many more times are we going to see Arteta or Wilshere drop right back to collect a four yard pass from the centre back? Get the fuck away from that area, let them bring it out or make them pass it more than six yards.
Whew!
Ramsey off, one of central the midfield trio off. Ox in the middle to give it some bloody purpose and drive.
All the good stuff has come through the middle at pace, the rest of it has been tippy tappy. Get some urgency into the game ffs.
Spot on Nonny @307.
Why the feck does Arsene Wenger keep persisting with Ramsey in the wide midfield areas? Hopelessly out of position! But what’s new from the boss?!
Cagey cup-tie ‘gainst a decent side. Future Cap’n Jack lookin OnIt – innit!
Up The Arse!
Ramsey not a winger, never has been never will be. Why dose AW play him there ?
Is Jenkinson injured ? Why is he not on the bench, he is going to be a great player for us.
With all that said, the pressing in rye first 20 mins was encouraging.
a mixed bag, and a relatively ben first half. besides the great save, woj has has little to do. ramsey fluffed our best chance, and ran hot and cold. why he is on a yellow and ki is not baffles me.
i agree with nonny for the second half. and somehow rozza should be on…
Come on Arsenal. This is positioned nicely for us. Good attitude, banish frustration. Any replay would be at home anyway.
Just about managed to keep me eyes open.
Boring boring Arsenal
ben=benign
This game has shades of Southampton about it.
Hoping for better in the second half.
We are playing like drugged up zombies. It’s awful. Body language is depressed. Looks like the end, really does. Or is it because our front line really is hyped up shite?
Correct on all counts, bath.
Do our forwards think they ever have to sprint to get in front of a defender?
Theo looks a world beater again ……..
Enough …
The front line is not the problem the crappy midfield trio is. They don’t work, they’re far too similar and none of them wants to kick the fucking ball more than ten yards unless it’s a floaty ball down the middle that worries nobody.
Everybody who gets the ball takes a touch, looks up, takes another touch, passes sideways or back. Pathetic. It is pre-season friendly stuff.
Lovely glued by OG
Tripped over his own bloody feet. Get him off.
COME ON ARSENAL!
ouch og down!:( briliant effort
Looks a bit terminal for OG.
Ramsey needs a running lesson it seems…..
Yeah I am worried too Nonny
Cut not hamstring for OG. Shame, we had some real momentum there.
Noooooooo
FUCKS SAKE
Typical Arsenal! Fuck sake!
Is this (yet another) shocking performance a surprise?
The manager has lost the winning mentality and therefore so have his players.
Can we have an impact player as well please !
On for 3 fucking mins, WTF !
And having written that I still desperately wnt us to win
Pathetic really pathetic. End of an era.
Completely against run of play that goal from Michu ..thats why it hurts more ..TR and OX on please
FFS OG!
Absolutely no belief in this team.
Bathgooner: STARTED to crumble 4 years ago
COOOOOOME ONNNNNNNNNNNNN
what Trev said @340
This team is flat as a pack of cards! What the fuck are they doing?
Change of personnel but not system coming up. He really hasn’t got a clue any more has he?
First half we had some success a couple of times with pace through the middle, running at them. Not much, but some.
This game is crying out for 4-4-2
Not working Mr Wenger !
Change it, bring on subs with more than 5 mins remaining plaese.
Need to do something now, before the 10 men fall behind the ball and we run out ideas again.
This level of performance has become the norm.
Not a knee jerk reaction but the club have to show some awareness and balls and relieve Wenger of his duties, hopefully Wenger himself will tell the board he’s leaving at the seasons end and this can be done with dignity
What are we playing at! It pains to watch this garbage!
Is Feo just saying “fuck playing right wing, I am going to stick around the middle anyway?”
Fucking joke!
THIS IS THE END
DAMN!
Im going to the dentist less painful !
Why cant we play with this urgency without getting scored against at first?:(
-_-
Goldi Poldi
POOOOLDIIIII
At fucking last come on get in there!
And may I say, we Fucking earned that! We have been busting a gut out there this half!
Podolski scores in 5 mins replacing Ramsey who scored once in 34 games!
That’s why you should have played him from the start!!!
A brilliant finish, but the real lesson was Koscielny’s urgency to get to the ball first !
Yeah Baby!!!!!!! Gibsy baby! He earned that one
Great volley but the key is speed, running and first time set up.
gibbsy…smashes it! come on arsenal.
BEAAAAAUUTIIIFUUUULL Gibbs deserved it ..by far best player in second half!
FUCK YEEEAHHHHHHHHH
Comical defending again. Fucking comical.
and we conspire to ruin it.
Why is Arteta just standing there?
Hope evapourates as usual ….
Arsenal bloody arsenal
We got one up and loose it straight away
Should score there.
Fuck’s sake Mert, wake the fuck up
What are we doing?
Oh well, the replay will be on telly so there’s another “Watch Arsenal or stick pins in your eyes” dilemma coming up.
Will Sagna ever get a pass behind the first man?
Lucky to get a replay.
Instead of spending 17mi on David Villa, can we get that 2mi Michu. Pleaes.
The second half display deserved us score much more, defensive display abysmal again during some parts of the game…oh well.. replay it is.
Oh well, I predicted a draw but thought it would be more a late equaliser from us.
Two superb finishes, two sloppy concessions.
Plus ça change….
We really should have/could have won on the day, but bring on the replay!
I think we deserved something from the game.. ?But seriously the defending for both the goals were terrible terrible
Not funny !
Again !
WTF !
I’m normally nice but with all due respect fuck off.
Swansea were lucky to get a replay if there’s one team who was luckky.
Does Sagna actually practice hitting defenders with crosses ‘cos he’s perfect at it.
Has been for about three years now. I still remember when he used to miss one now and then……..
We were on top from the first minute of the second half on.
heh Trev, his crossing was particularly abysmal today.
Ollie that’s not nice. We were poor for 75 minutes and a draw was about the best we could get but surely you can do better than a fuck off to a fellow Gooner?
I wouldn’t say lucky to get the replay, but we didn’t deserve any more than that.
Let’s hope we’ve got a couple of new faces by then.
Walcott 100 grand a WEEK? Wouldn’t give him 100 grand a year.
Sagna turned a fucking useless corner into something dangerous for the first. Why is Walcott suddenly taking all these set pieces? It’s not as if he’s any good at it. Cazorla’s delivery is much better. And surely Walcott should be in the middle picking up the knockdowns.
I thought we were the unlucky team… We were superb attacking wise in the 2nd half.
And that Walcotts goal should have stood.
Im with Ollie
Mental strength?
Defensive coach?
I see no sign of either.
Happy to take a draw though – and for our offensive performance in the last 30 minutes we deserved it. Against this team, a replay at home is far from a formality.
Sajit – £2m for Michu? – in your dreams – not any more.
Ollie @386,
I wouldn’t disagree with that, but we still let two bad goals in and I never felt we would win it.
The free kick against Arteta was ridiculous but the defending from what followed was non-existant. Again.
Yet again we get caught on the long ball how many fucking times will this happen to our central defenders?
The funny thing we press up the field and they just hit the long ball and we are screwed.
I reckon we should have won this without asking the obvious questions yet again.
And yes it will be another fucking horror game to watch!
Seriously, Geoff? We had all the chances in the second half from the 46th minute on, not the 76th, a lot of pressure
Two idiotic fuck-ups were there goal, the first one just because we didn’t gather our head from the disruption of the Giroud treatment (after he nearly scored, remember?)
Spot on Zico!
On reflection I am happy with this result- neither side deserved to win
I was amazed that we came back after their first goal and the Gibbs Giroo combo was delightful
However the AW system is not working as Nonny said earlier and we waste the strength of our forwards by not giving them more of the ball to challenge goalie and defence
Ollie – watch the game with your eyes open next time. Apart from a ten minute spell where their passing went to shit and they were rocking, they were by a mile the better side.
We were 2-1 up, so yeah of course we were never gonna win, were we?
I’m not sure I’m on the drink. I can be biased sometimes but I don’t know which game some people watched today. The ones they wanted to watch or the one that happened?
As for saying fuck off, I’ll say it again when nonsense is bandied about.
A draw being fair, I can accept that, it hinges on details, but the other way overboard, give me a rest.
I’ll take a break until the drinks are ‘back’ then.
I’m seriously angry with some of the stuff I read.
Ping
And Geoff, don’t sweat it. I learned a long time ago that online Arsenal communities only regard those who think exactly as they do as “fellow Gooner”
And it bothers me not a jot.
heh, I manage to assist still
Well in Impec1.
So at 2-1 even though they hadn’t had a chance since their first, you still didn’t think we even had a chance to win.
Well it didn’t happen, but you lot seriously need to get out of depression.
Goodnight.
Ollie, I thought we looked more like scoring when Ramsey was replaced by podolski but a match is 90 minutes and this was just another hugely disappointing performance in an increasingly dissapointing season for me.
Great Cup game and some superb stuff from the Arsenal. We’ll thump them in the return game. Sublime through balls from Ollie G for our goals. Was Theo playing? Not as a striker, never was, never will be. Great contribution from the Welsh Wizard although Aaron should have scored with that first half chance. Excellent decision by the boss to keep Podolski off until Ramsey had done the hard work down the left. And the unbeaten run rolls on to a home win v Citeh next weekend. Again, good decision to keep the Ox fresh for that. Only one.
Brighton away if we get past Swansea..
Brighton away is a breeze by the sea, Sajit. There’s no IF.
I cannot understand the defending of this team. Against Newcastle we conceded twice for not marking the man standing at the far post the second goal we conceded today again the same situation, the marking is just awful. I hate this zonal marking rubbish. Its not even zonal its just crap. We have to score 4 or 5 to win a game these days.
The main dissapointment being that for the 3rd time in a row Swansea City outplayed The Arsenal.
That alone tells you something is seriously awry at our beloved club
Not many gave this great young side much of a chance in one of the toughest fixtures of this round of the cup. Not for one minute did I doubt we’d go through. And Diaby’s back in training, and we’ll see more of Tr7 in the next few games, and we’ll see a couple of signings and I love the Arsenal and the beat goes on.
Sun is shining. Temperatures rising, sky is blue, Arsenal are red….life’s really good.
A draw was a fair result.
They scored first against the run of play. My main bugbear is how we don’t have the resilience or nous to protect a lead, having gone in front. It happened three times against Newcastle before they got tired.
As I said after the Southampton game, we continue to defend as abysmally as we are and we will get a serious doing from someone.
On the plus side, thought Jack was excellent today, and the second goal was sumptious.
Hoping for more, much more next weekend.
Heh BtM, I love your optimism. What are you smoking?
Hey now – let’s not twist the thing completely. We weren’t good enough but to say we were outplayed is total nonsense. We were by far the more offensive team in the second half.
Top 3, one trophy, OllieG 20 goals – every one a peach.
IBTM. What make you think we’ll thump them. In 4 attempt we beat them once with a give away goal. We might beat them but not with this type of crap defending. things have to improve a lot to stand a chance
Next week will be the FOURTH time in a row our beloved Arsenal have outplayed Citeh, the current champions and there’s nothing sad about that – we didn’t need to spend 400M on a crock to do it.
Come on you Gooners….
A very rich blend, Bath…..:-)
Jack was good in flashes and he wears his heart on his sleeve. He’ll be excellent in my book when he stops wandering around watching the ball and look for space to move into to receive it.
We’ll thump them W.C. Mark my words. You heard it here.
dk gooner- I agree, they have not outplayed us at all, I think the defending is really poor. I’m not talking about individuals but as team we look disorganised at the back, no one taking responsibility and screaming at others to mark up
Some of you need a perspective spliff.
Brighton away wouldn’t be any more a breeze by the sea than Swansea would it? Speaking purely geographically, I mean. Well, mostly.
Not sure I agree on the outplayed part we were shit first half but I thought were the more dangerous in the second, Only some comical defending again stopped us taking the tie. That being said we are a side in serious need of some top players being brought in – So please Mr Manager go out and spend some serious fucking Money,
IBTM- I love your optimism but I just don’t we’ll thump them, we can squeeze a result possibly.
“(Swansea) were by a mile the better side” and “outplayed The Arsenal”
Weird.
Seems like some folk just aint getting any. Oh well … onward, and ermm – upward!
Statistically, does the opposition ever score against us other than right after we have scored or from a set piece?
“@’holic “Some of you need a perspective spliff.”
Heh.
Ollie, I am with you on this one. It is puzzling to read how Swans outplayed us. Really? More possession, more shots on target and after a maybe 60-40 first half in their favor more or less a stranglehold on the game for much of the second half.
Whatever happened to the early season defensive resilience? I think the old problem of defenders not trusting each other is back, especially now that Sagna has become so ordinary. Per had a bad game, and Sagna’s lack of pace and ability to pass forward has become alarming.
We tried to play 4-4-2 in the first half but without pace on the flank that was never going to work. Theo should know his limitations. Until and unless he can consistently and effectively take defenders on he should play centrally only as a second option or against really static defenses. And he should leave those free-kicks to Arteta or Santi or Poldi. Like his confidence and attitude though. As the second half showed, getting Giroud involved opens up channels for others to cut and run in.
What Chippy said.
Missed the game bar the last end to end 5 minutes because I didn’t bother to wake up because for some god forsaken reason I thought it was at 5:30pm and had already come to terms with me missing it…
Oh cruel fate, even worse when you find out that your working days are going to be Monday to Wednesday unless told otherwise by your manager, banjaxing any hope of getting a ticket to the Arsenal vs Bayern home game in the last 16…
At least this 2-2 draw has opened up a silver lining of getting to see my 1st FA Cup Game in a few weeks at home, don’t think it will sell out but I should have a shock at Tx depending how results go and general interest
Got to go to work now, at times like this when I’ve missed 3 games in a row and can’t spend my hard-earned on going to see the Arsenal when I want, I wonder, is it really worth it?
Yeah, money is money
Till the evening all.
BtM: until I read your posts today I just didn’t get you. Now I realise you are quite probably one of the most gifted comedy writers of your generation.
Oh yeah, was hoping for a potential home draw in the 4th Round of the FA Cup, Brighton away is interesting enough though
… 60-40 first half in their favor in terms of penetrative play in the final third, though we had the better possession it was rather ineffective. Upping the tempo in the second half and playing off Giroud made us improve.
And we now really need a defensive-minded midfielder who can protect the back four using pace and some physicality and unlike Arteta always doesn’t have to rely on excellent positional awareness and close control in tight situations. Arteta is being wasted playing so deep and also there are times his natural tendency to create openings contradicts the safety first approach the defensive midfielder needs to take in a team that doesn’t really press high up. Arteta gave excellent cover to Song when Song was moving forward, but asking him to play deeper day in day out doesn’t really serve us the best.
Also, it was worth noting that Santi got himself more in the game once he moved to the left. I would really like to see Santi and TR7 together with TR7 opening up spaces for Santi who is at his best with the ball at his feet and some space in front.
Cut the personal stuff now please.
We want the same things at the end of the day, but have different opinions. It happens in the world of grown-ups.
BtM knows!
Puff puff puff….. 
Arsenal were the better side for all but the final 20 mins of the first half. The scoreline doesn’t always tell the full story, and i would’ve thought that most here in the bar would know that fact by now?!
If no zonal defending, then the tie was ours.
Nevertheless, progress will be had back at the Ems and a few seagulls await!
3rd place and at least one trophy! COYBG!
Nonny @434
pot..kettle
Well. We tied a tie in wales. Fair result.
Very predictable reaction from most here in the bar on both sides of the “debate”.
I am in the middle. Fair result but we should be better. We should demand better. The defending at times is absolute crap. We deserved a draw.
A few things that I would like to highlight:
Gibbs is not a defender. He is pretty good going forward but he completely switches off on defending at times. We play with 3 at the back quite often because he is so out of position. Part if this is down to our ” style” but some is also down to Gibbs not really viewing himself as a defender.
Sagna has really lost a step this year. Sad to say but there it is. Also he has never been a good crosser of the ball. I mean the first defender can be a full 10 yards off of him with his back turned and Sagna still can’t get it across. We need better. If Giroud is our striker then he deserves crosses.
Theo needs to take a step back and realize this is a team sport. I understand that he views himself as a leader but he needs to let the whole team work. Not just him.
Finally, we need to not be afraid of taking one for the team. Last week jack ducks out of the way if Ba’s free kick and it goes in. Today Arteta should have rushed out and taken the shot from Green. Instead he turned his back and made it an easy finish.
Ah well. Lets try to improve and I will continue to support OUR GUNNERS!
Some people seem to just watch the games to see negativity. Arsenal weren’t outplayed in the first half and completely dominated the 2nd half apart from the obvious fuck ups for their goals. Some folks just can’t wait to get on blogs to blast Ramsey. It appears they just watch the games to criticize Ramsey. By the way, Ramsey didn’t have a bad game today, but the Anti-Ramsey Brigade would realize if they simply watched the game. Rant Over!
Well said Guvnor; play nice lads, it’ll all be alright in the end!
Chill out people. You should all be used to us gifting goals away by now. Hold on to a lead?????? Do me a favour.
But let’s not forget, we did put 7 passed the geordies so world domination can’t be far away.
Good analysis NorCal. I too think a draw was a fair result due to our messy defending.
This match underscores the need for a solid physical DM. This would free up a pairing of Wilshire/Arteta, Wilshere/Rosicky, or Rosicky/Arteta to run things from the attack.
And what to make of Santi? Currently, if he’s off the boil offensively, he can be as much of a liability as AA23 has been. OG shows he needs to be out there much of the time. How do we make use of the combinations from the mix of Santi, Ox, Podolski, Theo?
Impec1 @441 — Ramsey had his best game since the Man City away match. There was not any of his recent problems about dwelling on the ball for too long and slow decision making, except for the occasion when he crafted a wonderful chance in the box but seems to become indecisive for a just a fraction of a second. I hope he is coming back to form. The sign of that would be when he starts scoring these goals, even in his bad days he gets in really good positions.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-we-have-shown-character-and-quality-
People can say what they like, but I dont disagree with a single word of what Le Boss says.
Pravda
Considering that Swansea are rapidly becoming our bogey-side, the lads did pretty well.
Agree with Dr F @435, we need a dedicated central DM with tenacity, and I’m certain one’ll be brought in this transfer window, regardless of Diaby’s fitness or otherwise.
My more immediate concern is with our zonal defending and the BFG whenever he’s on comeback from injury. Like his frame, he seems to take some time to get back up to speed! I’m sure though, he’ll be more assured against Citeh.
Another poor match from Bac, but not as poor as NY’s day, and it looks like his legs have gone at right back. Coq has to come in there ASAP or Kos switched there until Corporal Jenks is back up to speed.
Great call ‘holic, banter is wonderfully entertaining, personal abuse sadly not.
but haven’t listened because after the last two weeks, can’t listen to his musings any more. No offence, but I can’t stand it any more.
Just read it in a russian accent then. sorted!
A great game of football and a very decent performance from The Arsenal dampened only by a defensive error from a forward, hence the replay. I thought we were the better team overall but I am biased.
Can’t understand why Cazorla would be viewed as a liability. He adds much to the flow of our team even when not on the top of his game.
Anyway, each to his own & UTA!
Jean @ 446: Absolutely agree. As I mentioned earlier in the posts, this team really need a defensive MF now and need to rotate the combination in the attacking midfield, and sometimes may even play one of them out wide if necessary.
Problem with Santi is wonderful player he might be, he is not naturally an Arsenal-style player. He is not into ghosting into empty pockets of spaces, not too much into dragging people around him off to a side and not into orchestrating attacks. He is a great player with ball on his feet and and a bit of empty space already created for him. That is why I think, even though he is not really fast, he can do a great job playing on the wings with TR7 orchestrating the attacks. Not always, but in matches here we are finding it hard to create opportunities that would be a good mix.
Esso: Disagree with AW about penalty – replays clearly show no contact from the full back and Ramsey tripping himself up.
Otherwise OK.
I’m with you bathgooner although u actually stopped listening and believing 3 years ago
Dr Faustus@446: Good points. Agreed. By the way, thanks Ollie for the beautiful assist for 400.
Just got home, no back-drinking done yet so advance apologies if I rehash already argued arguments, I’d argue.
Anyway.
All I ever ask is that every player gives it their best, and we got that today if you ask me. I really think we should have won it, but we’ll have to settle for the draw and a replay. I also think that Laudrup may have shot himself in the foot by employing such a defensive tactic, they were well on their way to becoming a proper bogey team for us but by playing this way Laudrup showed how much they still fear us. If I had been a player that would have given me a massive confidence boost for the return leg to know that we are at home to a team that are scared of our attacking play.
I also don’t particularly mind having to play an extra game. Sure, we could have done without it but then again one extra game shouldn’t have to make that much difference. And I’d much rather progress after a replay than go out at the first hurdle. (No shit, Sherlock?)
We should have defended the corner that gave their equaliser a lot better. Both Podolski (crap clearing header attempt) and Arteta (should have closed to scorer down a lot better) have to take the blame, but there you go.
I must also say that I thought Ramsey had an excellent game. Not that I think that will stop some from still trying to pin everything bad in this world on him, but still. If every player had his drive and desire we would win considerably more games than we do.
And a cracking great goal by Gibbs. Good to see him try a proper shot for once, and boy did he take that one beautifully! That really should have been the winner, but no…
Anyway, I thought we did quite well today and the overall trend is cautiously optimistic after all. Yes, the Southampton game was below par but overall I think the attitude has been a lot better lately. We must still improve of course, but we have, overall, at least taken a few small steps in the right direction lately.
Was that all? Probably not. But I’ll stop there and walk up to the bar and order drinks for you all instead. Beer OK with everyone?
And leave BTM alone. He is spot on as usual. How do I know this????? Well, I have just come off the phone to my long lost aunt. It turns out that after all these years she in fact does have a pair of bollocks after all??????? I didn’t see that one coming.
I like the idea of Santi out left with jack more forward or rosicky as our most forward.
A little creativity on the wings would be a nice change.
And he can at least cross the ball.
Is Jenks hurt or is Sagna getting the work in hopes that he will get stronger?
Norcal @444,
Fair appraisal but I think you’re being abit harsh on Gibbs.
Granted he’s not a natural defensive left back but in modern football nowadays, there are very few that play that role well in both an attacking and defensive role.
For me, Gibbs suffers purely from not having a regular decent left winger ahead of him to back him up and help definitely with offensive creation and defensive cover on the flanks. He’s invariably the only attacking threat on the left side and if he didn’t get involved further up field in the final third, there would be no balance to our attacks. Our fullbacks are the basis of our width and not the wide midfielders.
*mutters*
Steve T @460,
Steve T:
DanC,
I agree with you up to a point. He is good going forward and does provide our width, absolutely. I also think that is why he a poldi do well together. Poldi likes to go inside and Gibbs makes the overlap. As I said that is due to our ” style” of play. Where I do fault him is when we have a lead and maybe don’t need the balls to the wall burst forward he is often caught out of position leaving the entire defense stretched. He also has a habit of trying a 50-50 tackle up at midfield when sometimes if he contained the player then our defense would have more time to get organized behind him.
I like Gibbs and thought his goal was beautiful and well deserved. I just wish our shape was better at times.
It’s nitpicking but I just wish he would be more committed to playing sound defense sometimes.
Nonny and Ollie – Why not just have a mutual, virtual, making-up and agree that Ollie should, obviously, NOT have told you to “fuck off” and Nonny should have simply asked for an apology?!
Just seems easier that way.
Meanwhile, BtM is onto the hard stuff and it is only January!!!
My take, well, we dominated only when Swansea decided to become entirely useless at football, much like we did against the Toon. I fail to understand why everybody was on Ramsey’s back today, he actually, apart from the comical penalty shout, had a pretty good game in my view and he, Gibbs and LJW seemed to be the only players on the pitch who understood the need for a bit of direct football in their half.
Farting around with the ball between the final third and our goal line now appears to be a tactic rather than a failure as we have become so good at it.
No, Sagna CANNOT beat the first man, either with the ball at his feet or when attempting to cross it, as I have been saying for months now.
No, LJW, Arteta and Cazorla do not look like they can consistently work together in any particularly effective capacity.
No, Walcott should not be offered all the money in the world to totally ignore his manager’s decision to play him on the wing today. Total lack of discipline on his part, arrogant little wanker.
But outplayed by Swansea today?! Not a fecking chance. OK, we didn’t outplay them either (more they actually outplayed themselves for 20 minutes and made us look good in the process) but we were hardly being overrun in any area of the pitch, let alone all of it.
Those of you who tune in to my missives will be well aware that I am unafraid, as LJW, to wear my heart on my sleeve. Some seem to think that is a great characteristic in a footballer but a bad one in a football fan. I call bullshit. I believe that a fan who can say it is shite when it is shite and beautiful when it is beautiful is a fan who will not be herded around like so many others and might just have a point or two to make at times, whichever side of the fence you choose, and it IS a choice, to sit.
We weren’t any better today than we were against Villa, Southampton or Norwich, but at least the opposition were so terrible that we got ourselves out of jail and found ourselves with the only really fair result in the end, a draw and a replay.
We can only hope that the work behind the scenes in the transfer market bears the required fruit and maybe, just maybe, a couple or three super, duper, pooper, scooper signings will come in and give us something new.
Some players with the energy and work ethic to press the ball as we did so effectively for 20 minutes today would be a great start. When the going gets tough, we have too many passengers waiting for the opposition to gift us the ball…Fortunately for us, today they did.
Wenger needs to understand that this team will only win games when the opposition don’t work hard and work smart. Bradford showed us that in the current world of English football, talent and experience are no match for a decent shift by 11 men for the whole 90 minutes.
Maybe I am being too harsh, maybe too soft or maybe too magnanimous, but I am at the very least being honest.
Let’s hope that Citeh don’t tear us a new one, although I rather fear that they might.
Oh, and as for the Ramsey penalty claim – if Webb did indeed see the contact but waved it off because it was unintentional then that is an admission that it should have been a penalty because there is no such thing as “unintentional” in the rules. If you run too close to your opponent that is called “challenging for space” and if you clip him then it is a free kick/penalty.
TW: I can not agree at all that we weren’t any better than v Villa or Southampton or Norwich. We pressed them harder, we ran more, we created more and we scored two good goals and forced Vorm into at least two really good saves and Theo missed a one on one which he converts more often than he misses.
Lars – I agree to a certain extent, but the way I see it, had any of those three teams literally forgotten how to play football for twenty minutes, we would have created those same chances then too.
Vorm did save them a couple of times, but Woj didn’t do too badly on a couple of occasions either.
Write – a quick drink.
Treble (that’s a long drink) still on.
Shoulda/coulda won 2day.
Go on buy us some half-decent offensive (a big fukkin’ midfielder what can break up/switch the play from back to front), first up perlease – Arsene/Arsenal.
Short – not on the rocks, jus’ now – please barman.
And Suarez with another intentional handball to score liverpoo’s second. He really is a cheat.
Oops – offensive “effin options”
NorCal,
Agreed regarding his lack of defensive nouse at times but tracking runners is also the role of the midfielders and left-sided central defender.
Leighton Baines looks so good for Everton because he gets excellent support both attacking wise and defensively from Pienaar. They essentially share both roles on the left side whenever required. It’s no coincidence that he has been exceptional since Pienaar returned from the LWCs.
Poldi (or any of the other wide midfielders) does work well with Gibbs but he still needs to be more mobile and intelligent with his support. Fullbacks nowadays need to be more like wide midfielders, and remember that Kieran was actually a left midfielder / winger in his youth-team days.
Michu doenst lead the line so I dont know how he will fit in seamlessly into our formation but I know we HAVE to get him.
Or he is going to end up at Chlesea or Tottenham and gonna score loads and we are going to regret it..yet again.
DanC,
Cheers. I think we are very similar in our thoughts. I may have been harsh on Gibbs and maybe pointing out things that are not entirely up to him. I think when Santis played we saw just how much Gibbs gives us. Both fullbacks are often exposed in our system. Sagna is often not covered well either. The first few games if the year saw both the Ox and poldi covering better but it caused little offensive output. Now we tend to swing the other way to improve our goal scoring but it also leaves us exposed.
Balance. Will we ever find it?
Cheers.
TW: but I don’t think they forgot how to play. We pressed high up the pitch (better than I have seen us do for quite a while) and they couldn’t handle our pace.
DanC: good points about Baines and Piennaar. They work exceptionally well together, Piennaar wasn’t half the player when he made that unfortunate mistake of joining the LWC’s.
In other words, I just got the fixture update email that says that the replay will be on the 16th, which means I might extend my stay in London to catch that one as well. I have the luxury of being able to work from anywhere that has a an internet connection as long as I have my laptop with me, so I could stay a few more days in London and still work full days from Monday through Wednesday. I’ll just have to check tomorrow so I don’t have any meetings I must attend during that period and then just rebook flights and hotel. Maybe the draw today wasn’t such a bad result after all
Lars @ #459
We saw the same game.
Larsene knows! #HalleluYeah!
TW what rubbish are you talking about Swansea making us look good? If we played badly then they made us play so, why not agree that our pressing made them play badly when they did, please give (y)our team some credit when they deserve it.
The above still applies to everybody who criticise the manager when a player performs badly but praise only the player when same player does well.
NorCal,
Cheers.
Regarding balance, I think that we will get it as soon as we have a “disciplined”, positionally intelligent, defensive midfielder with pace and strength. He’ll be able to better cover and mop-up the gaps left by any of the fullbacks with the assistance of the two central defenders. That won’t compromise our attacking potency and will make us defensively more sound. This role was always meant to be Song’s primary purpose in the side but he neglected it far too often in search of attacking glory, hence why he was allowed to feck-off!
There are many DM out there that can play that role for us but they just need to be made sure that they do just that when they are brought into the side. Hell, even Santos may be made to look good as a wing-back!
Lars,
Cheers.
Regarding Pienaar, he really is a top, hard-working, technical player in my eyes, and would have worked well with Gibbs. Why we never went in for him to also partner up again with MA8 rather than alllowing those LWC’s to feck up another talent, is beyond me?! But then again, nothing surprises me with our transfer strategy most of the time these days!
Just finished watching Macclesfield – Liverpool. There’s no doubt the game is seriously sick when people are defending that cheating little shit Suarez – yes he a fantastic talent but what a low life.
Its staggering that football alone among all of the major team sports doesn’t have a video referral system to help the officials.
Macclesfield were magnificant and were robbed of a replay by an act of blatant cheating.
How the Liverpool players can think that was a job well done is beyond me.
Psed – happy belated TS.
Yet more evidence of the omnipotence of the wallet @ 476.
Typical bloody Liverpool, always blaming someone else.
*puts on squeaky voice*
Eh, it’s for the officials to see it, not for us to play by the rules.
Nice dig by the Mansfield broad, though she should have said “de rigeur for Suarez.”
West upper,
It is sad. You could tell even by his reaction that he intentionally did it and was thankful to get away with it.
He should have gotten a red card and the goal disallowed. Instead a team that could use every penny they can get out of a replay are left with the stench of liverpoo.
Lars -Like A Real Supporter.
Good perspective which I was not sharing during the second quarter.
We did well at the start to deny Swansea the ball for long periods, which stopped them out-Arsenaling us as they have done recently.
We then just seemed to lose purpose and got very sloppy which is, I believe, what gets people so angry, when they/we are almost waiting for it to happen after so many lax performances.
However, the second half was very good, attack-wise, and very poor, defence-wise. But at least we reacted when a goal down and Podolski did make a real difference.
NorCal, DanC,
My take on Gibbs for what it’s worth, is that he can be very good going forwards when he keeps the ball on his left foot and does, actually, go forwards.
Defensively, he is way too inclined to chase forwards after the ball, leaving a lot of space behind him. Often he has no real help but doesn’t help himself with his positional play.
Cheers for the kind words, all.
zico, it won’t (hopefully at least) cost me too much to stay a few days extra
And now I must check out what that cunt Suarez has been up to.
Just seen the Suarez handball on 101greatgoals. What a disgrace, that is so obviously intentional.
Fine, if it’s in a very tight game with much at stake I can sort of understand (but not ever condone) it but ffs, this was against a Conference side.
If Liverpool have any decency they will offer a replay just like we did all those years ago when we scored a goal after the other team (can’t even remember who it was these days, was it one of the Sheffield teams?) has put the ball out of play for allowing treatment of an injured player.
And then they will proceed with giving Suarez a final warning to shape up or get the fuck out.
But I am not holding my breath for any of those two things to happen.
483 dr z ” the omnipotence of the wallet”…….that’s in direct contrast to the impotence of Hookah Henry now sent to stink out the spammers ….although that will take some doing with Fat Sam there.
A replay when it looked as though we were going out. Okay, we couldn’t hold onto a lead once we managed to get ahead but hey, we are The Arsenal.
All the talk of a DM — I couldn’t agree more but, am surprised, no one has mentioned M’Villa. I’d love to see him at Arsenal, but sadly, it looks as though Arsene isn’t prepared to put up with a player with questionable temperament.
I’m really worried about our transfer dealings. Why on earth did we not buy a striker after you know who left. As I recall, we were all clamouring for such a purchase at the time. And in the same way, even though most people on here are calling for a DM, it wouldn’t surprise me if we missed out again.
Someone needs to be more directive to AW, otherwise this could be the season we fall outside the top 4. Not negative, just a dawning realisation that we have an inferior squad to our direct competitors, i.e. spuds, Everton.
Up the Arsenal!
Evening All
I thought the game developed into a really great cup tie in the final quarter and we should have won BUT for another couple of avoidable errors at the back. When will we learn?
Rambo had his best game in months but I do believe he went over in the box having knocked himself off balance. Jack put in a great shift as per usual and Gibbs impressed going forward and his goal was taken with aplomb.
The right side had a very poor game. Sagna had another bad day and Feo went missing for long periods of the game and when he had the sort of chance a top striker takes, he was found wanting.
We can do a lot better, the BFG was ring rusty and needs to sharpen up before the Oilers arrive next Sunday, can’t wait. Disappointed TR7 didn’t get on but with the pile-up of fixtures this month surely he will get some game-time in the replay or the postponed West Ham match.
As always COYRs
Lars – Fair enough, I guess, as ever, we both want the same thing, we just see their occurence in a slightly, well, VERY different light!
If the pressing game was truly what caused Swansea to self-destruct for 20 minutes, unable to find a pass, kick a ball in any sensible direction or even find a clearance rather than the corner flag, then that leaves only one question…
Why are this bunch of over-played footballers so fecking lazy for 50% of the total games played thus far this season and for 50% of the 90 minutes in the others?!
Cent – I would have bothered to try and reply in much the same manner as above, but seeing as you have chosen to alight yourself upon the highest horse of them all, telling another fan that their opinion is rubbish when they at least took the time to consider it, write it in a reasonably intelligent manner and present it willingly to people who they KNEW some of would find reason to contradict it, I won’t.
But for the record, I actually think that Swansea made us look good by being so bad for twenty minutes, regardless of your protestations, although I am not about to call your opinion rubbish because we disagree.
That would be childish.
At least the super super top top handbrake performance in the first half may have convinced whomsoever needs convincing that we require an accelerator to compensate for the super super top top quality handbrake. A bit more va va voom please.
I saw TR7 being told to warm up after about 50 minutes.
He started to undo his jacket – on the ESPN pictures – and that was the last I saw of him.
Maybe his zip got stuck too and the poor lad is still somewhere trapped in his jacket. Someone needs to have a serious word with our coat sponsors.
Or maybe he just injured himself with all that unusual physical activity – actually taking tha coat off.
That is not a dig at TR, btw, I would like to see him back on the pitch.
Chaps and chapettes, just thought of something – am I right in thinking that the replay can not be moved to another day in the week even due to TV selections? Moving it to the Tuesday would put it too close to the City game on Sunday, and the Thursday is too close to Saturday (Chelsea away). It can’t be moved to the next week either because then we have West Ham on the Wednesday.
Hmm… sodding tv selections bullcrap
Screw playing defense with any conviction. I’m off on a run up the wide wide left ( Califorina wide). Looking for a clever flick from Beefcake for the 5 hundie.
Heh, Arsene says on Pravda that we may find one or two on the market because we have now “lost” Djourou and Chamakh.
Maybe, if the players all crept out of the showers really quietly, jumped on the team bus and drove round the block three or four times, really fast, we could lose Squillaci too.
Or arrange a day trip to Boulogne. When I was at school, we almost lost one boy in the class there, without even trying !
Mr Receptacle….you’ve left route 1 open right down the middle for a long ball from defence………………
How do you lose a Chamakh?
Perhaps he is behind the fat walrus at the looondooon zoo.
& nodded on by the beefcake onto……..
Take that you lovelies.
Well. I hope the Guv removes a previous post for us Uply. Otherwise we look a bit like amatures.
Well in Uply, albeit unintended. TaBS award to Mr Receptacle.
Whoops my intended assist foxed the defence and rolled into the net.
Thanks for a proper assist Norcal.
Perhaps Chamakh was lost in the fog of a Moroccan….burns quicker than a Californian
Trev – “Maybe, if the players all crept out of the showers really quietly, jumped on the team bus and drove round the block three or four times, really fast, we could lose Squillaci too.”
They wouldn’t have to drive too bloody fast! In fact, with the exception of the BFG, they could probably get it done on foot!
Cheers Bath….lucky Ollie (goals committee nazi) is not around Mr Receptacle as he could add further punishment by taking away the esteemed TaBS spot due to the mis-spelling of your name.
Well in, Up – so beautifully taken that I’m wellin’ up!
(ok, I shall perhaps leave the puns and word plays to Trev
)
Trev. Don’t forget new signing Diaby????? Available in 3 weeks apparently.
507….cheers Lars……Trev’s mantel of punmeister remains unbeatable…he is to puns what the invincibles were to football.
Steve T…that’s 3 weeks from tomorrow I assume
Just read the AW comments on our socialist pay structure. Quite frankly I am amazed. No wonder top players leave and the in motivated dead wood just laughs all the way to the bank.
3 weeks ups. The bog standard Arsenal 3 weeks.
If its an Arsenal three weeks, then the season will be over by then…..
For what it’s worth David Villa came on as a sub tonight for barca. Guess he hasn’t signed anything.
One other point. If we are genuinely interested in David Villa isn’t it about time that we started getting players to issue comments VIA Twitter or the like about how he is being held hostage or about his Arsenal DNA?
Steve T: yep, our socialist pay structure is counter productive. Meritocracy rules!
If Vela, Denilson, Ramsey, Squillaci, Chamack, Santos, Bendtner are paid what they’re worth (circa £50k a week) then hiw come nobody else is prepared to pay them?
OVERPAID! I don’t blame RVP. Seeing that bunch of shite earning similar money to me for being absolute garbage would be enough for me to pack my bags. How much longer is this nonsense to be tolerated?
I agree Steve T.
Our wage structure is great for youngsters and players at the end of their productive years. It is horrible for retaining world class talent who can go just about anywhere else and get paid better. Our average is high and a waste on some players and also once you reach the top you know that to get a better pay package you will have to leave. I don’t think we need to pay 200k a week but we have to be willing to pay better to attract world class talent. Otherwise we will continue to fight in the 2-6 range in the table with a surprise second or third occasionally. Spending money does not directly equal winning the title but it gives you much more wiggle room. Right now, everything would have to go perfectly for us to really challenge for the title. It does happen but not very often.
If the British core gets better and a few years of experience and a few key additions and stays healthy and….then maybe. But then if any if that goes sour well we
Steve…tomorrow never comes…..
Arsene’s socialist thinking on pay does’t stop him taking 7 million a year. Some drinkers here truly upset that RVP de- bunked up to Old Toilet. Why wouldnt he? Not only did he double his salary, have a better chance of some silver ware, he could also see that with our socialist pay structure there is little chance getting “super super” players to join. Of course his stupid letter to the supporters lost him the affection straight away. Sh*t happens and we all move on.
Sorry
Supposed to say fight in the 4-6 range with an occasional second or third.
And
At the end,
If it all goes sour then we will see what happens.
My problem with it Geoff is this. How do you motivate some of these players. If you are earning 2.5 million a year and are struggling to get off the bench why would you really be that bothered????
All this ranting about socialists here, have I stumbled on the Daily Telegraph website or something?
More like “The Spectator” uncle chas.
It creates its own problems.
One of the issues the Spuds had with modric was this. Spuds turned round and said he was a 40 million pound player. His agent said, I agree, now pay him 40 million pound player wages.
No wonder Theo thinks he is worth more than he is. If we have players on 50/60k a week just to turn up to training then you can’t blame his lofty interpretation of what he thinks he is worth.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Arrr.